#College

There's A Space Between Us

The following day Dylan came up to me with a furious look on his face.

"What is this?" he demanded, thrusting a picture of Bryan and I from the family mart we got banned from.

I hid my surprise, wondering where he got the picture from "I thought I told you not to come and talk to me unless it was to apologize" I muttered under my breath. 

I brushed past him and walked into the building, not even caring about what he thought that picture of Bryan and I meant. 'as long as I know the truth I shouldn't care what others think right?' I reassured myself

"Jennifer!" I heard Daisy's yell from the crowd of students. Once I spotted her I tried to escape, but she was way too quick and immediately tackled me into a hug, not allowing me to escape her. "Mind explaining what this picture of you and Bryan is?" she asked me, basically shoving her phone into my face. It was the same picture that Dylan had just showed me a couple moments ago. 

I feel like I've had to do a  lot of explaining these past few days.

"We were at Family Mart and we did things that got us banned, that's all. And also, how did you get that picture?" I questioned her.

"You didn't know? Your picture with him went viral! For some reason people find a couple getting banned amusing... WHAT STUFF???" she gasped.

I saw Mark and Ysa heading to where we were standing.
I didn't really want to talk to anyone else about this so I hastily told Daisy "I'll tell you the details later" before running to my next class, not giving her time to try and catch me again. 
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I sighed with relief, it was lunch time and Daisy was nowhere to be found.

I could only hope that she had forgetten about the previous discussion that we had early this morning.

I walked towards the cafeteria, and when I arrived people noticed me and started cheering and clapping loudly. 

"Well, well, well, would you look at that? You've become quite popular Ms. Shire" Bryan chuckled, seeming to have appeared out of thin air. I was seriously starting to think that he had magical abilities, one of them being to show up whenever I was at my most humiliating moments. 

"This is all your fault!" I hissed. He gasped melodramatically "my, oh my, have you forgotten that you were the one who agreed when I asked you if you wanted to hang out? And might I remind you that you were the first one who made a move and placed ice cream on my face, I merely retliated in self defense"

I glared at him, I really didn't want to  handle any of this right now so I walked away. 

My mind was filled with thoughts and worries of the recent events that had transpired and I was so distracted that I didn't even notice that I was falling to the ground. 

Before I knew it I was enveloped in a hug and we both crashed to the ground.

"Ugh..." Bryan groaned when I landed on top of him.

"Oh my gosh! Bryan! Are you ok?!" I asked him, feeling frantic. 

"I'm...fine...just give me a moment" he wheezed out. "We need to take you to the clinic" I said, gazing worriedly at him. 

I could see that he was about to argue that he was fine, but instead he let out a gasp of pain as he tried to stand. 

"We are going to the clinic, NOW"

He didn't bother arguing after hearing the tone of my voice.

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"Your boyfriend is going to be fine Ms. Shire, he's just going to have a few bruised ribs at most" the school nurse informed me as I paced back and forth nervously. 

I was about to correct her and say that Bryan wasn't actually my boyfriend, but I knew that that was the least of our worries at the moment.

I was about to enter the room Bryan was in, but then Dylan burst into the clinic looking around frantically. 

When he spotted me he enveloped me in a hug and sighed in relief. 

"I thought something happened to you" he admitted once I pushed him, leaving a space between us. 

"Well I'm fine Dylan, so you can go back to your classes" I told him, arms crossed. 

"Are you kidding me right now Jennifer?!" Dylan huffed irritatedly, running a hand through his hair. 

"No I am not, so go back to your classes and leave me the hell alone until you are ready to apologize for being such a -"

"Excuse me, but I am going to have to ask you to leave" the nurse interrupted me, pointing at Dylan with a glare. 

"What about her?" He asked, gesturing towards me. "This young lady was waiting for her boyfriend before you came in and started disrupting the peace of the clinic" the nurse told him matter of factly, frowning disapprovingly at Dylan. 

"Boyfriend?!" Dylan exclaimed rather loudly "Sir, I am going to have to ask you to leave"

Dylan glared at her and she glared right back.

Knowing that he couldn't win this battle he left without another word. 

"It's going to be okay honey" the nurse said, giving me a reassuring smile. 

I faked a smile, because in my heart I knew that the situation that I was in was far from "okay".

Gradually I felt a space grow between us.